High Seas (Series)
★ ★ ★
This Agatha Christie style murder mystery is a Spanish Netflix series (don’t worry, it comes with subtitles), enrapturing audiences in heartbreak and heart-warming family, love and moral responsibility narratives. With frustrating dynamics for the female characters that show physical and emotional abuse of the 1940’s, while also wrapping the audience in criminality and romance, all while aboard the Bárbara de Braganza. On a ship headed for Brazil, watch as you root for the writer and the lieutenant, the singer and the wife and last but not least the servant and the sweetheart.
Red Sea Diving Resort (Film)
★ ★
Loosely based on real life events, Chris Evans leads a band of his merry men and women, Israeli Mossad agents into Sudan in the 1980’s to help evacuate Ethiopian Jews to safety in Israel. It isn’t my favourite Chris Evans movie, but he fits into his charming role of reckless leader like a glove, as the handsome devil with a heart of gold who saves countless lives from persecution. A time of conflict that I had scarcely heard about myself is brought to Netflix, it is unfortunate that there isn’t much time for character development in the movie, ranking the movie quite low on my go-to Netflix recommendations.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Film)
★ ★ ★ ★
Starring Zac Efron and Lily Collins this docu-film is about the life of Ted Bundy and his girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, during his trials, this film may be shocking to some so caution is advised. Many would say this film grossly romanticises Bundy; however, the effect is to show Elizabeth’s life of falling in love and raising her child with him, while also showing how effective his charms were on his victims. One cannot deny how effective Zac Efron’s performance is nor can one unsee the effects of such a character can have on him, seen clearly in the uncomfortable and eerie interview he had on the Graham Norton Show.
Derry Girls (Series)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Relatively new to Netflix, Derry Girls has been circling the block for a while, with season three greenlit by Hat Trick Productions, I for one am tingling for more and spring couldn’t feel further away. Derry Girls is a comedy that tells of a group of teenagers who know nothing but a society interwoven with violence and segregation.
It’s perfectly timed; during a table read at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the shows writer expressed how this show couldn’t have been made ten years ago due to so much conflict in the last few decades, children have grown up desensitized to violence being raised through World Wars and Irish Civil War.
